Mark Burgess @markburgess_osl Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

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Emeritus Prof. Computing + Information physics, Promise Theory, CFEngine, author of @SmartSpaceTime2 ++, tech/leadership advisor ChiTek-i, varied music composer.

Oslo, Norway

https://t.co/60KV5jlMr0

Joined July 2011

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

1 year

Weekend Thread - Promise Theory Intro (PT) ---- 1. PT is a general theory about the mechanics of abstract "agents" and their "intended" behaviours, i.e. processes. It was originally proposed as a model for Computer Networks, but has since been applied to many different scenarios.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

17 days

Paradise on Sunday is a day not touching a computer, brainstorming with beloved pen and paper.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

2 years

This, dammit

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

1 year

@nattyover On behalf of all of us who purposely left academia and happily, I hope the "no academic affiliation" slur is seen as evidence that academic affiliation is no criterion by which to judge intelligence or research capability--it only reflects a snobbery in elites and sci-journalism.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

10 years

Amazing photo of lightning striking a plane in a rainbow. Once in a lifetime or two. http://t.co/zOi5xzjXYp

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

15 days

The main key to understanding any problem is to find the optimum naming convention, notation, dynamic and semantic coordinates. It's worth taking the time to get it wrong then make it right. Iterations!

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

This

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

9 months

1. This is a thread about Quantum Mechanics and how we interpret it. The way QM is presented bothers me from time to time (at least when I have time to think about it). Indeed, time plays the key role in the whole issue.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 months

This is surely the quote all computer science folks need on their wall.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

I am constantly told that no one wants the kind of work I do, or the things I write. It's too smart, too broad, too this too that. I must be mad to take on the challenges. Each one is a world of hurt. But I persist because I believe I can help a tiny few to go further. Sigh.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

Yes, as I've been demonstrating formally, a connected service mesh is just a monolith on a larger scale.

@kelseyhightower

Kelsey Hightower

@kelseyhightower

5 years

Monoliths

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

From Gary Larson's Far Side - a lesson for all!!

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

Years later, I still have to explain this on a daily basis. #InSearchofCertainty

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

1 month

Yes, I pretty much recognize and endorse this message by @skdh ..

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My dream died, and now I'm here

This is my contribution to bring the "you" back into YouTube #uinutubeYou can support me on Patreon ➜ https://www.patreon.com/Sabine

www.youtube.com

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

25 years ago, I co-wrote one of those oddball theoretical papers on Dirac fermions confined to curved surfaces, as a loose-end curiosity of curved spacetime. Today this paper is being cited more than almost any other I wrote in physics as it suddenly applies to nano-technology!

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

I'm delighted to announce that, after 6 years, a much improved second edition of Promise Theory book is now out! Along with it an important application of PT to the theory of money! View at Cc @jeffsussna @botchagalupe @DanielMezick

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

Scaling in a nutshell: - When things grow big, they can't always sustain what they did well when they were small. - When things become many, they can't easily maintain the coherence afforded as a few. 5 years seeking certainty:

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

Most people / organizations have no patience for solving hard problems. Lacking a vision and not trusting, they give up long before progress can be made. They offer no mandate for innovation so it's up to independent lone wolves to have the stamina.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

6 years

For everyone who thinks they know statistics, or has caught themselves 'splaining "correlation is not causation" - Pearl's long awaited readable book (his earlier books being not). Why causation exists and why statistics can't do it. Recommended.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

11 months

1. This is one of several threads about databases and distributed systems, and why these are still a headache for enterprises after so many years. Part 1, basics. N=2^5

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

"Complexity emerges from simplicity. All this beauty, all this art, comes from the bottom up, not from the top down". - Brian Eno

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

7 years

Blog essay from my Reactive Summit Keynote, Microservices, the future of society, and all that.... thx to everyone

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

Finally drawing a line under this paper. Locality, Statefulness, and Causality in Distributed Information Systems Thank you to all who reviewed it for me and improved it as a result. Now I call on everyone to use it to start an informed discussion! ❤️

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Locality, Statefulness, and Causality in Distributed Information...

Several popular best-practice manifestos for IT design and architecture use terms like `stateful', `stateless', `shared nothing', etc, and describe `fact based' or `functional' descriptions of...

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

21 days

🫣😅

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

1 year

👀

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

9 years

Let's rename "immutable infrastructure" to "prefab/disposable" infrastructure, to decouple it from the false association with functionalprog

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

1 year

It's sad that the modern conception of a library is for books to have become only decorative objects in a shared workspace of computers.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

10 days

Waves on Sunday.. a little notebook work makes the computer go much faster..

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

1 year

Hilarious

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

9 years

Has SDN missed the point of DevOps, and lost its way? http://t.co/dVsximso6D Thoughts from my work with @socketplane and others.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

1/2.. To my engineering friends -- I would like your help. I've been compiling this book (especially volume 2) of theory of systems for years, and here is finally a rough draft, more or less complete.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

I try not to use the Internet as my psychiatrist, but on a dark day I let down my guard - and I am blown away by the many kind responses to a throwaway remark. Thank you to everyone who sent their support. That certainly lifted my spirits- you truly learn who your friends are. 🙈

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

@70sscifiart Some other great Bruce Pennington pieces

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

"A landmark in the development of our craft" - five years since this book was released, with foreword by @adrianco - - my first book in the hope to inspire young and open minded

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

Sigh.... Story of my life.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

9 months

12.We often note that quantum processes can be in superpositions, and say that this is fundamentally quantum, but it isn't. It's really a question of sampling rates. It's known that "quantum uncertainty" is actually Nyquist sampling rate uncertainty in a Fourier analysis of waves

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

7 years

The reason I spend so much effort on pedagogy is that everything seems clear until you try to explain it. Understanding is a weak illusion.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

2 years

Northern lights out in Oslo tonight...

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

1 year

@nattyover Note however, "brilliant laypeople" is the second remark that I would think is a slur. Just because we are not at a university doesn't make us laypersons.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

7 years

New blog: Artificial reasoning and leaky pipes - How monitoring lets us down by shrugging off non-trivial causation

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

Warms my heart a little to know that two of the largest internet giants still run all their systems on @cfengine -- hundreds of thousands of computers cooperating to reach a managed equilibrium.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

@70sscifiart Some of my favourite Time White pics...

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

"Getting close to the time now" - what a muddle of space and time concepts we use in everyday language! I'll be explaining why, and much more ... my new book is in its final stages.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

New draft paper on "Locality, Statefulness, and Causality in Distributed Information Systems (Concerning the Scale Dependence Of System Promises)" now available for comment and peer review at. I welcome feedback. Applicable to web, data pipelines, ++ etc

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

My delightful partner has been practising her English idioms. She confronted me with a sly look this morning, and announced: "Well, someone's village is missing their idiot!" Then burst out laughing.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

@70sscifiart Time White #2

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

2 months

Using Promise Theory to solve the distributed consensus problem- another in my series of critical essays about IT practice. It's another of those problems we make harder than it needs to be out of habit...there are better answers if we care to look.

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Using Promise Theory to solve the distributed consensus problem

Secure tools for sharing granular data between micro clients

mark-burgess-oslo-mb.medium.com

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

Today I'm starting a new series about the concepts of Semantic Spacetime applied to data analytics. I'll be showing practical examples and code using #golang and #arangodb . Stay tuned after this introduction to follow the ten parts, each week!

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Universal Data Analytics as Semantic Spacetime

Part 1: New Horizons for Sensory Learning

mark-burgess-oslo-mb.medium.com

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

This

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

12 days

You're not doing theoretical physics unless you're fine tuning, right? The sensitivity of discrete systems is infuriatingly unstable but my interference patterns are at least symmetricalish now. .🥴😅

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

Today, I am releasing the self-paced learning videos about Promise Theory Basics, based on collaboration with the for general free access. I hope this will eventually help to increase understanding of this useful methodology.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

Congratulations to @chef on the release of Habitat, cc @adamhjk -

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The Quest to Make Code Work Like Biology Just Took A Big Step

Coders have long sought to mimic biological systems. A new tool aims to make it easier for anyone's software to course through the Internet's veins.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

OH: "Americans have a weird culture. They are terrified of unpasteurised cheese and nipples, but they are quite happy about guns."

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

7 years

An experimental animation about #PromiseTheory (cc @jeffsussna @mikeloukides @timoreilly @botchagalupe ) - useful?

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1. Promise Theory - Basic Concepts (part 1)

A 10 minute introduction to the basic concepts of Promise Theory and Cooperation. See: http://markburgess.org/TIpromises.htmlTranscript in the first comment...

www.youtube.com

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

Ok, I'm half way there!

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

Please help me to support the Promise Theory educational initiative by subscribing to the YouTube channel

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Promise Theory and Applications

This channel contains educational videos about the principles of Promise Theory and its applications

www.youtube.com

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

1 year

I just realized that this year is @cfengine 's 30th anniversary. Seems worth a cake.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

The SRE book is finally out - possibly the most important systems experience book written in the past 30 years -

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 months

1. It's config management time, so here is a thread about configuration languages in IT. Config languages are not unique to IT, they exist in all areas of science and engineering to describe layout or "state".

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

Treat your systems to some love for valentine's, or treat your valentine to some systems thinking!

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

7 years

Top keynote on reactive events and promise theory by @jboner from the reactive summit

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Keynote - How Events Are Reshaping Modern Systems

www.youtube.com

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

A right handed, broken symmetree

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

And the Lord said, let us confound their single language into microservices that they may not understand each other.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

7 years

The latest in the series of Promise Theory introductory films, many thx to @chef / @adamhjk as impartial sponsor

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Promise Theory and Applications

This channel contains educational videos about the principles of Promise Theory and its applications

www.youtube.com

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

2 years

This one for you @MMylova

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

Well who'd a thunk-- @patrickdebois and I wrote about a book about Promise thinking and Risk in cybersecurity, developed while working with

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

7 months

1. Segal's Law: "If you have one clock, you know what time it is. If you have more than one, you're not sure." An eyebrow later, everyone gets this. Yet, in distributed computing, we don't always stop to think what it means for time sensitive operations.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

A data pipeline is a controlled sequence of Man in the Middle attacks.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

The more I remind myself of quantum physics, the more convinced I am that we should abandon the term "particle" in favour of "process".

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

@70sscifiart Tim White #3

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

This is now pending release on Amazon, over 1100 pages of systems modelling experience, freely available thanks to my work with Countdown has begun....

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

17 days

Wow, I thought maybe a couple of close fiends might find this amusing. You never know what suddenly gets unexpected attention! 🐣🐰📡

@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

17 days

Paradise on Sunday is a day not touching a computer, brainstorming with beloved pen and paper.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

2 years

As a result of a couple of recent personal tragedies, a close friend prompted me to write down some personal stories from my life. It turns out I did a few things. I wonder if that's something for public or private view...

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

I wonder why no one cares about this

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

The first complete rough cut of my Treatise on Systems, now finally complete at This has been exhausting! Now begins the long process of QA and optimization. Reviewers welcome!

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

😋 (can't find the source though)

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

10 years

50th anniversary of Japan's Shinkansen - bullet train. 320km/h, no fatalities and average delay 0.6 minutes over 50 year history.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

2 years

The term "reverse proxy" might be the least helpful and least descriptive misnomer in computing.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

@70sscifiart This reminded me of Patrick Woodroffe and his Dave Greenslade album art...

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

2 years

I spent 20 years now trying to bridge the world between academia and industry, and academia is by far the least able to step into that bridge. Filled with false pride and self importance it only wants industry's money, but it's not willing to adapt to deserve it.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

7 months

Is someone running out of ideas at CERN?

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Scientists find antimatter is subject to gravity

Tests at Cern refute suggestion that antigravity might apply to antimatter, showing instead it also falls downwards

www.theguardian.com

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

If we're not willing to ask impertinent questions, we're forever enslaved by someone else's narrative.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

My new book Smart Spacetime is now on Amazon - whatever you were expecting, prepare to be surprised

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

1 year

Want to innovate and create a startup? I wrote some blunt rather than blue-eyed notes, based on my own experiences and conversations...

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Want to innovate and create a startup?

Some blunt retrospective notes from the front line…

link.medium.com

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

The success of automation and "AI" only show how ridiculously overqualified humans are for most of the jobs we take on.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

25 days

Ah, a wonderful discovery! It seems this book was written for me, and yet I only just stumble across it this morning...

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

8 years

Very nice summary of the flaws in HTTPS, TLS/SSL over the years

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

Thanks to everyone who offered to look at my draft paper. A bit overwhelmed by the interest. But ok - great. I going to put the draft here for all interested. Please email comments (see my contact page) and there will be a cut off in a couple of weeks.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

Throughout my career, my life, I never judged people by their family background, money, or school. I'm pretty easy going, and will talk to anyone with the same basic respect. But why is the world just dominated by awful snobs?

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

My beloved to me: "You need to start playing more dumb so that people will like you better. You don't have to solve every problem, just mumble something nice to them instead of being so smart all the time!" Me: 🤖

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

6 years

This...

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

7 years

New giant neuron structure found in the brain.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

6 years

Years ago, I wrote about the misunderstandings around push vs pull in load balancing, with a postdoc who came to study PT. It's sort of the basis for CDN. Suddenly, this work has been getting a lot of attention for some reason.

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(PDF) Dynamic Pull-Based Load Balancing for Autonomic Servers

PDF | The growing autonomy of servers may significantly deteriorate the performance of traditional load-balancing strategies. Indeed, the authoritative... | Find, read and cite all the research you...

www.researchgate.net

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

6 years

My very sleepy, and meandering talk from @cfgmgmtcamp about the evolution of configuration at scale

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A brief history of configuration Managing sprawl - Mark Burgess

http://www.CityTV.nlhttp://cfgmgmtcamp.euA brief history of configuration (Managing sprawl).Mark BurgessWhat I learned from 25 years of configuration.More in...

www.youtube.com

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

11 months

The time has come for me to humbly look for new projects and opportunities. Please DM me if you might have an interest in working together.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

Sorting through some old treasures from my childhood....

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

3 years

The separation of "fast and slow" variables remains the most useful approach to the description of processes, regardless of model, continuous/discrete, etc. And when there is no natural separation, you can start to talk about the meaning of multiscale phenomena and complexity.

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@markburgess_osl

Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

6 years

Official release of this piece now, by InfoQ Microservices and the Economics of Small Things via @InfoQ

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Microservices and the Economics of Small Things

In this article Mark Burgess explores the process of "decentralizing intent" and the effect it has on the predictability of our systems including what we can know as we scale systems.

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

5 years

"Final" version, with thanks to reviewers. From Observability to Significance in Distributed Information Systems

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From Observability to Significance in Distributed Information Systems

To understand and explain process behaviour we need to be able to see it, and decide its significance, i.e. be able to tell a story about its behaviours. This paper describes a few of the...

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Mark Burgess

@markburgess_osl

4 years

I just found this old map I drew of the BBC micro sphinx adventure game back in the day... Must have been 1983...

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